Issue 1062

News

  • In Brief

    Melbourne woman sacked in pay dispute takes Grill'd to court A Melbourne woman has launched Federal Court action against fast-food company Grill'd, alleging she lost her job after complaining about being underpaid. Kahlani Pyrah, a member of United Voice, said she received a flat rate that was less than the award wage and did not receive the shift loadings she was entitled to, while working at the Camberwell outlet.

  • Refugee activists protest Labor conference

    Protests against coal, for real action on climate change, for the rights of refugees and for a binding vote in support of equal marriage rights took place outside the ALP conference in Melbourne on July 25.

  • How anti-racists beat back the racists

    On the weekend of July 18 and 19 rallies were held around Australia to counter the racist rallies organised by Reclaim Australia and the fascist United Patriots Front. Following is a roundup of some of the rallies. * * * Melbourne A planned show of strength by racists and neo-Nazis in Melbourne backfired when once again far-right protesters were outnumbered 20 to one on July 18.

  • Asylum seekers speak of their ordeal

    Sixty people listened as refugees gave harrowing accounts of what had led them to seek asylum in Australia at a forum in Parramatta on July 15 organised by People Just Like Us. Shokufa Tahiri and Ezatullah Salar spoke about the long history of oppression of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan. In 1890, Abdur Rahman Khan exterminated 63% of the minority group and until the 1930s Hazaras were systematically driven out of cities, and deprived of citizenship and education. Under the Taliban, it became a crime to be Hazara, Turkic or Shia.

  • Protest against Bandyup Women’s Prison overcrowding

    The Bandyup Action Group (BAG) held its most recent speak out on July 18 to protest against conditions in Bandyup Women's Prison. There has been a dramatic rise in incarceration rates, particularly for non-violent acts such as non-payment of fines. About 30% of women detained at Bandyup are there because of unpaid fines; 30% have existing and severe mental health problems; and 90% have been physically and/or sexually assaulted at some point in their lives.

  • Kurdish activists accuse Turkish government over Suruc massacre

    At a protest outside the Turkish Consulate in Sydney on July 23, Kurdish activists and their supporters accused the Turkish government of complicity in the massacre in Suruc of 32 young socialists on their way to help rebuild Kobane, in the liberated area of Rojava in northern Syria.

  • What's on һƷ̽ TV

    Between 300 and 400 anti-racist activists faced off against racist and Islamophobic "Reclaim Australia" demonstrators in Perth on July 19. This was part of a national weekend of counter-rallies against those called by the far right group “Reclaim Australia”.

  • Medics doused with pepper spray while treating casualties

    The Melbourne Street Medic Collective released this statement on July 19. * * * On July 18, first aiders and medical professionals working as part of the Melbourne Street Medic Collective provided medical support to anti-racist/fascist protesters at the Rally Against Racism near the Victorian Parliament. During the course of this rally, officers from Victoria Police deployed chemical weapons in the form of OC (pepper) spray against the crowd. As a result several people required urgent medical attention and eventually hospitalisation, directly as a result of exposure to the spray.

  • How to get active

    MELBOURNE Come to Rage for refugees, a fundraiser for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre:. Lineup: Anchors; Raccoon City Police Department; Tired Minds; Summer Blood; Pitt the Elder; Knife Hands. Tickets: $10 online; $15 at door. Sunday August 2 at 1pm. Wrangler Studios, 8C Whitely Pde, West Footscray. Tickets: visit oztix.com.au.

  • Refugee Rights Action Network says no to "enhanced screening" at sea

    The Refugee Rights Action Network (RAAN) released this statement on July 23. * * * Baby Y Nhu and four year olds Khoi and Chuong are among those on board the Vietnamese asylum seeker boat intercepted by WA Water Police off the coast of Western Australia on July 20. At least eight children and about 30 adults are now being held by Border Force. They are on board a navy boat, possibly the HMAS Choules, which was used in April to hand back another group of asylum seekers from Vietnam.

  • Caltex charts new waters in sacking workers

    The crew of Caltex oil tanker the Alexander Spirit have ended a three-week industrial dispute that began on July 2. They have set sail from Tasmania to Singapore, where the company intends to replace the Australian crew with seafarers on drastically reduced pay and working conditions. The Alexander Spirit is the fifth tanker that primarily circuits the Australian coastline to have its crew replaced in 12 months.

  • Union opposition to Australia/China Free Trade Agreement

    The union movement’s opposition to the China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) has ratcheted up since the agreement was signed in Canberra on June 17. ChAFTA allows for 95% of Australian exports to China to be tariff free. These will include many agricultural products, including beef and dairy. In addition, there will be liberalisation of market access for the Australia's services sector, and investments by private companies from China under A$1.078 billion will not be subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.

  • ALP abandons all pretence of opposition on refugees

    A few days before the National ALP Conference on July 22, Labor leader Bill Shorten announced that he would support a policy to turn back boatloads of asylum seekers at sea if it is elected to government. The announcement shocked and angered refugee rights advocates around the country, including members of his own party.

Analysis

  • ‘Marriage equality: a step towards a better world’

    We thought marriage equality was in the bag after Prime Minister Tony Abbott hinted he’d support a cross-party bill and conscience vote in the Liberal Party room in June. We thought we were closer when opposition leader Bill Shorten put forward a marriage equality bill. Victories overseas — Ireland and the US — in May and June propelled momentum here. But both Abbott and Shorten are now backtracking.

  • Opposition to Shenhua open-cut coal mine grows, splits Coalition

    Opposition to Shenhua Watermark’s unpopular $1.2 billion open-cut coal mine, proposed for the Liverpool Plains in the north-west of NSW, is growing. The Coalition cabinet is split, as are NSW and federal National Party MPs. Federal agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce, who is fighting to hold his New England seat, opposes the mine. His cabinet colleague, federal environment minister Greg Hunt, .

  • Obituary: Vale Felicity Wishart — a true hero for the environment

    The Australian Marine Conservation Society released this . * * * The Australian Marine Conservation Society and the Australian environmental movement is in mourning over the sudden and unexpected loss of Felicity “Flic” Wishart who passed away in her sleep on July 19 aged 49. Flic was one of Australia’s leading conservationists and was a great and inspiring champion for the planet, the cause she dedicated her life to.

  • New report: Ocean warming passes tipping point

    Tropical storms are increasing in frequency and strength. City of Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines, after Super Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest tropical storm to make landfall in history, struck in November 2013. Photo: Partido Lakas ng Masa.

  • Hazelwood power station testing use of ‘biomass’ instead of brown coal

    Clearfelling old growth forest in Tasmania. Previously destroyed for woodchips, native forests are now in danger of being burned to create electricity. Reports that the owner of Victoria’s Hazelwood coal power station, GDF Suez, has been considering plans to convert it into a co-firing facility, allowing it to burn native forest waste as well as brown coal, have been slammed by environmentalists.

  • Capital, youth and the urban revolution

    Around the corner from where I used to live in northern Brisbane, there was an abandoned flourmill. It had been abandoned for decades, left to slowly decay, and became home to pigeons, homeless people and drunk young people trying to scale its enormous silos and inner frameworks. The story of the mill is one of capitalism as a whole, of post-industrial decay in advanced capitalist societies where wages have become too expensive. Work moves offshore, or into the outer suburbs, and the mill decays.

  • Why raising the GST to fund health would make the poor less healthy

    The neoliberal agenda for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Sydney on July 23 was set by NSW Premier Mike Baird, who proposed increasing the GST from its present 10% to 15%. Baird wants the extra funds to be primarily used to fund health services, which account for almost 30% of state budgets, including spending on hospitals of about 20%. What he neglected to say was that under his mate Tony Abbott’s federal government, spending has been drastically reduced on health along with education. The total reduction across both areas is about $80 billion.

  • Carlo's Corner: What sick freak would want to 'win office' so they can torture kids?

    When Labor leader Bill Shorten announced his support for yet one more draconian and inhumane Abbott federal government policy — this time, towing back asylum seeker boats in violation of international law and respect for human life — some pointed out the usual role of the Opposition leader is to oppose things. But that's not fair. In recent times, we've seen Shorten oppose many things. They just happen to be the same things PM Tony Abbott opposes, like international humanitarian obligations, the rule of law and basic human decency.

  • NTEU: Make casual university workers permanent

    Casuals now make up about half of the academic workforce in Australia’s universities. For most of them it is precarious work at its worst. Those lucky enough to get two 13-week sessional contracts a year are unemployed academics for the other half of the year, forced to then compete with a growing precariat for temporary employment elsewhere while still at the call of their part-time employer. And the 13 weeks are not necessarily standard 35-hour weeks, they can be for as little as one hour a week.

  • Where does the threat of racism come from?

    On the weekend of July 18 and 19 there was another round of right-wing Reclaim Australia (RA) protests. The stated aim of RA and its offshoot, the United Patriots Front (UPF), was to defend what they call “Australian values” from the threat of “Islamicisation”.

  • Community takes fight for rail to the Supreme Court

    Supporters of maintaining the rail line into Newcastle are hopeful that their fight against NSW government’s plans to remove the line into the CBD will prevail. The community has fought for more than a decade against state government attempts to cut the rail into the city centre. Developers have long wanted to exploit the city centre’s prime rail line land as it has never been mined and is considered ideal for multi-story developments. Their mates in the NSW parliament have been only too keen to help out.

World

  • Spanish state: Catalonia hurtles towards showdown

    If a Catalan Rip Van Winkle were to wake up today after a sleep of only six years, his disorientation with Catalonia would be as great as that of the original Rip Van Winkle after he dozed right through the American War of Independence. “Am I hallucinating?” he might ask, struggling to find the right answer to questions like:

  • Chomsky says US isolation pushed shift on Cuba, amid calls for end to blockade

    Internationally renowned US intellectual Noam Chomsky told Mexican newspaper La Jornada on July 20 that it was because Washington was becoming increasingly isolated from “their own backyard” of Latin America, that the US decided to normalise relations with Cuba. Chomsky said the fourth Summit of the Americas of 2012 in Colombia was a major turning point for the US. It saw itself, along with Canada, completely marginalised from all the crucial issues being debated — including Cuba.

  • Screwed by vulture funds, Puerto Rico is the US's 'Greece'

    The world has been focused on the spectacle of the “Troika” of the International Monetary Fund, European Union and the European Central Bank crushing the Greek people, but it is far from the only example of strong nations using a “debt crisis” to extract more wealth from those that are weaker. A case in point is the US colony of Puerto Rico. In a June 28 New York Times interview, the governor of the Caribbean archipelago nation declared its debt of US$73 billion “is not payable. There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics. This is math.”

  • Treatment of Greece reveals Europe elite's contempt

    An event of profound importance took place in Brussels on July 12. The significance of the European summit negotiations extends well beyond the immediate — and devastating — consequences for the people of Greece. The fallout will not just affect the stability of the Greek government and the political future of SYRIZA and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

  • Fighting deforestation: Bolivia's green gains the media isn't talking about

    When Bolivian President Evo Morales announced in May that his government was allowing oil and gas drilling in national parks, mainstream and progressive media outlets alike were quick to condemn his supposed hypocrisy on environmental issues. Writing for the Associated Press, Frank Bajak argued that although Morales is known internationally for his outspoken campaigning on climate change, at home he faces constant criticism from conservationists “who say he puts extraction ahead of clean water and forests”.

  • 'Free' trade deals a corporate power grab

    Three huge free trade deals are being negotiated right now, that will sacrifice workers' rights, health care and the environment across much of the world on the altar of corporate profits. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are being negotiated in secret, with privileged access for selected corporations.

  • Bulgaria: Refugees illegally jailed and abused

    There has been a huge rise in asylum seekers in Bulgaria as a direct result of instability in North Africa and the Middle East. They use Bulgaria as a land entry into the European Union. The Bulgarian tabloid press has coined the phrase “wave”, which has now entered political and popular language. In 2009, the newly-elected government greatly changed the way the law was interpreted and enforced. Before 2010, there was not a single “illegal immigrant” convicted and jailed in the criminal prisons.

  • Turkey: Government implicated in ISIS suicide attack

    On July 20, 32 people were killed in a suicide bombing attack on a cultural centre in Suruç, a town in Turkish Kurdistan. More than 100 were injured. Suruç is located across the border from the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobanê, which was besieged by forces of the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), between September and January.

  • Call for international solidarity over Suruç massacre

    At least 30 people were killed and more than 100 injured on July 20, when ISIS suicide bomber from the self-styled Islamic State group attacked a cultural centre in the Kurdish town of Suruç, on the Turkish side of the border from Kobane.

  • Ireland passes law granting trans people greater rights

    Ireland passed a new Gender Recognition Bill on July 15 that will allow transgender people to change their birth certificates and other documents, and achieve full legal recognition of their preferred gender. The bill is an elaboration on a previous one that allowed the legal changes, but only with a supporting statement from a doctor.

  • Yemen: US partly to blame for starvation

    Child killed by Saudi bombing of Yemen. Twenty million people in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, are at risk of dying from hunger or thirst. That’s 80% of the country’s population, which, according to UN agencies, badly needs emergency supplies of food and water, along with fuel and medicine. This almost unimaginable crisis sounds like something out of a disaster movie. But the cause is not an earthquake or a tsunami.

  • New call for‭ '‬pan-European movement‭' ‬against austerity

    Thousands of people protested on July‭ ‬15‭ ‬across Europe‭ – ‬and in cities around the world‭ – ‬in solidarity with Greece's struggle against austerity. The next day,‭ ‬Marina Prentoulis,‭ ‬spokesperson for Syriza in Britain,‭ that what was needed was a‭ “‬pan-European movement‭” ‬capable of confronting the power of European capital and the neoliberal agenda of European leaders.‭

  • John Pilger: Greece is not just a tragedy, but a lie

    An historic betrayal has consumed Greece. Having set aside the mandate of the Greek electorate, the Syriza government has willfully ignored last week's landslide "No" vote and secretly agreed a raft of repressive, impoverishing measures in return for a "bailout" that means sinister foreign control and a warning to the world. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pushed through parliament a proposal to cut at least 13 billion euros from the public purse - 4 billion euros more than the "austerity" figure rejected overwhelmingly by the majority of the Greek population in a referendum on 5 July.

  • Obama buries Gaza under Iran nuclear deal

    The deal between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program lifts an ominous shadow from a region already ravaged by bloodshed and conflict.

Culture